Hold the rudder!
Stay the course!
Mind the yaw!
Storms may try to sweep us away.
Let us instead harness the wind
In sails snapping, spinnaker billowing,
Run before the gale.
Let it sweep us after all
As it may take us to uncharted waters
Where we shall break new waves
And tempt the deep with our Souls
While plying the worth of our salt together.
I happen to have a desire to buy a sailboat and do a little sailing...OK, so a lot of sailing. I just haven't managed to talk Kathy into it yet...that and I haven't come up with the money for it yet either, that will happen as it needs perhaps. I tried to insert some punctuation this time. It feels odd to do that now but I understand how it can direct the flow for a reader now that I have read a few other's poems.
This was another email trigger as I send a message to my retreat group. I almost always write the jotting at the end, a kind of wrap up as I complete the thoughts. This one I finished as follows: (oh, another group is on retreat as I type this. Kathy is in the group, she is my vested interest referred to)
"Here I sit, reliving the recent past. Tears in my eyes. Happy for those this weekend, even though I may have a vested interest I somehow feel that I would feel the same for a group of strangers... as I once did. They are mixed tears, I must admit. I think of what I went through to get where I am now. I think of new enlightenment for others. I think of our group and I miss the combined energy of the people, the place and the time. I think of the energy that we still share and realize that nothing can change our experience and nothing can change our course except us."
Jeff.
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2 comments:
I too, used to be very resistant to using punctuation in my poems. And then in grad school, some of my professors harped on me over it, and I began to see what it could do for me.
Now, I see that leaving it out can do great things, too. Suddenly, everything is an enjambment into the next line.
It's all a matter of what you want to accomplish.
I'm not so much resistant as using the line breaks to set the pace. Punctuation has been for emphasis, ?, ! and the odd . to just be sure it doesn't just run together. Perhaps a few , to leave thoughts on the same line that deserve each other.
My feeling of accomplishment comes from being able to read it out loud to myself and feel what I felt when I wrote it. Punctuation seems to attract too much of my attention upon re-reading.
Besides, I don't think with punctuation, it impedes the flow.
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